WORLD WAR Z Director Marc Forster To Take on THE WAR MAGICIAN

Movie by Joey Paur

Now that director Marc Forster has wrapped production on the big screen adaptation of the epic zombie novel World War Z, he's ready to jump on board his next directing adventure. He's looking to adapt a World War II novel called The War Magician, which is based on a true story that's pretty damn incredible. 

The book was written by David Fisher and it tells the story of "British magician Jasper Maskelyne, who adapted the core principles of stage magic to warfare in ways that defied the imagination: Among his achievements, Maskelyne hid the port of Alexandria Harbor, made the Suez Canal disappear and tricked Germany's Gen. Erwin Rommel with a phantom army that didn't exist, a ruse that ultimately led to Rommel's defeat and became a turning point of WWII. Many of Maskelyne's inventions are still being utilized in warfare."

Doesn't that sound like it will make for a hell of a great movie!? I love the story behind this, and I seriously cant wait to see it turned into a feature film! Tom Cruise originally acquired the rights while he was at Paramount pictures. He was attached to star in it at the time as well, but the option ran out after the studio kicked Crusie off the lot. He's no longer attached to the project, and it will be interesting to see who ends up being cast in the lead role. 

Forster also directed the James Bond film Quantum of Solace, and I think He'll do a fantastic job bringing this story to life if he ends up officially taking it. 

Here's the Book Description:

Jasper Maskelyne was a world famous magician and illusionist in the 1930s. When war broke out, he volunteered his services to the British Army and was sent to Eygpt where the desert war had just begun. He used his skills to save the vital port of Alexandria from German bombers and to 'hide' the Suez Canal from them. He invented all sorts of camouflage methods to make trucks look like tanks and vice versa. Working for military intelligence, he put on a stage show inside the Royal Palace in Cairo in order to locate an enemy spy's radio transmitter. On Malta he developed 'the world's first portable holes': fake bomb craters used to fool the Germans into thinking they had hit their targets. His war culminated in the brilliant deception plan that won the Battle of El Alamein: the creation of an entire dummy army in the middle of the desert.

GeekTyrant Homepage